Reports of Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University No.150 (47–59) March 2016
Reproducibility of Complex Turbulent Flow Using Commercially-Available CFD Software
―Report 1: For the Case of a Three-Dimensional Isolated-Hill With Steep Slopes―
Takanori UCHIDA*1
E-mail of corresponding author: [email protected]
(Received January 29, 2016)
Abstract
Selecting a high-quality site for wind turbine installation is frequently challenging in Japan because the majority of the topography of Japan is steep complex terrain and the spatial distribution of the wind speed is quite complex over such terrain. To address this issue, an unsteady CFD model called RIAM-COMPACT® has been developed. RIAM-COMPACT® is based on an LES turbulence model. In the present paper, to assess the accuracy of RIAM-COMPACT®, we performed a numerical simulation of uniform, non-stratified airflow past a three-dimensional isolated-hill. Attention is focused on airflow characteristics in the wake region. The results of RIAM-COMPACT® using the LES model were in good agreement with those of another commercially-available CFD software (STAR-CCM+) using LES models. Key words: Commercially-available CFD software, STAR-CCM+, RIAM-COMPACT®, LES, RANS, Isolated-hill
1.Introduction
The author’s research group has developed the numerical
wind synopsis prediction technique named RIAM-
COMPACT®1,
2). The core technology of RIAM-
COMPACT® is under continuous development at the
Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University.
An exclusive license of the core technology has been granted
by Kyushu TLO Co., Ltd. (Kyushu University TLO) to
RIAM-COMPACT Co., Ltd. (http://www.riam-compact.
com/), a venture corporation which was founded by the
author and originated at Kyushu University in 2006. A
trademark, RIAM-COMPACT®, and a utility model patent
were granted to RIAM-COMPACT Co., Ltd. in the same
year. In the meantime, a software package has been
developed based on the above-mentioned technique and is
named the RIAM-COMPACT® natural terrain version
software. Efforts have been made to promote this software as
a standard model in the wind power industry.
Some of the major corporations, which have adopted the
RIAM-COMPACT® software, are Eurus Energy Holdings
Corporation, Electric Power Development Co., Ltd.
(J-POWER), Japan Wind Development Co., Ltd., and
EcoPower Co., Ltd. etc.
Computation time had been an issue of concern for the
RIAM-COMPACT® software, which focuses on unsteady
turbulence simulations (LES, Large-Eddy Simulation). The
present fluid simulation solver is compatible with multi-core
CPUs (Central Processing Units) such as the Intel Core i7
and also with GPGPU (General Purpose computing on GPU),
which has drastically reduced the computation time, leaving
no appreciable problems in terms of the practical use of the
RIAM-COMPACT® software.
In the present study, simulation results of airflow over an
isolated-hill with steep slopes obtained from the RIAM-
COMPACT® software are compared to those from another
commercially-available CFD (Computational Fluid
Dynamics) software. The results from this comparison are
reported.
2. Summary of Commercially-Available CFD Software
Commercially-available CFD software has developed
mainly as an engineering tool primarily in the automobile and
aviation industries until the present time. The following is a
list of the major CFD software packages available on the
market:
General-purpose CFD thermal fluid analysis software
■STAR-CCM+
http://www.cd-adapco.co.jp/products/star_ccm_plus/index.
html ■ANSYS (CFD, Fluent, CFX)
http://ansys.jp/solutions/analysis/fluid/index.html ■SCRYU/Tetra
http://www.cradle.co.jp/products/scryutetra/
*1 Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University
48 Uchida : Reproducibility of Complex Turbulent Flow Using Commercially-Available CFD Software, Report 1
■STREAM
http://www.cradle.co.jp/products/stream/index.html ■CFD2000
http://www.cae-sc.jp/docs/cfd2000/index.htm ■PHOENICS
http://www.phoenics.co.jp/ ■Autodesk Simulation CFD
http://www.cfdesign.com/ ■CFD++
http://bakuhatsu.jp/software/cfd/ ■CFD-ACE+
http://www.wavefront.co.jp/CAE/cfd-ace-plus/ ■AcuSolve
http://acusolve.jsol.co.jp/index.html ■FLOW-3D
http://www.terrabyte.co.jp/FLOW-3D/flow3d.htm ■FloEFD
http://www.sbd.jp/product/netsu/floefd3cad.shtml ■Flow Designer
http://www.akl.co.jp/ ■PowerFLOW
http://www.exajapan.jp/pages/products/pflow_main.html ■KeyFlow
http://www.kagiken.co.jp/product/keyflow/index.shtml ■OpenFOAM
http://www.cae-sc.jp/docs/FOAM/ ■FrontFlow
http://www.advancesoft.jp/product/advance_frontflow_red/
The wind power industry has on its own developed and
distributed CFD software designed for selecting sites
appropriate for the installation of wind power generators (see
the listing below). Recently, some of the above-mentioned
general-purpose thermal fluid analysis software has started
being adopted in the wind power industry.
CFD software designed for the wind power industry (wind
farm design tools) ■RIAM-COMPACT®
http://www.riam-compact.com/ ■MASCOT
http://aquanet21.ddo.jp/mascot/ ■WindSim
http://www.windsim.com/
■METEODYN
http://meteodyn.com/
In the present study, the simulation results from the
RIAM-COMPACT® software are compared to those from
STAR-CCM+, one of the leading commercially-available
CFD software packages. The results of the comparison are
discussed.
3. Summary of STAR-CCM+ Software
In this section, a summary of STAR-CCM+, a general-
purpose thermal fluid analysis software package distributed
by CD-adapco will be provided. The version of the software
package used in the present study is 6.02.007 (for 64-bit
Windows).
STAR-CCM+ uses a single GUI (Graphical User
Interface) for computational mesh generation, execution of
fluid analyses, and data post-processing. In the present study,
a three-dimensional model of an isolated-hill (IGES format)
is created using CATIA, a three-dimensional CAD software
package developed by Dassault Systèmes. After reading in
the created three-dimensional CAD data on STAR-CCM+,
the mesh type, the mesh spacing, the turbulence model
(details to be described later), the time-step interval, the
boundary conditions, and other variables are set.
Subsequently, pre-processing, fluid analyses, and
post-processing are performed.
The mesh generation method in STAR-CCM+ is
distinctive. In STAR-CCM+, both a polyhedral mesh and a
prism layer mesh can be used (see Fig.1). The polyhedral
mesh is a new type of mesh offered by CD-adapco and
consists of polyhedral cells which possess 10 to 15 faces on
average. The use of this cell type makes it possible to
dramatically reduce the number of mesh cells required to
obtain analysis results equivalent to those that can be
obtained using a conventional tetrahedral mesh and 2) the
memory required by the solver. With the use of this cell type,
the computational stability improves significantly, and the
time required to obtain convergent solutions also decreases.
The prism layer mesh is a refined mesh designed to capture
the behavior of the boundary layer developed over an object.
In this type of mesh, layers of thin mesh cells are distributed
regularly over the object. Since the thickness and the number
of layers in the normal direction with respect to the object
surface can be freely adjusted, the behavior of the boundary
layer in the vicinity of a wall can be captured with high
accuracy. However, when the number of the prism layer
mesh cells is very large, the computation time increases
significantly.
Reports of Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University No.150 March 2016 49
Numerical simulations are based on FVM (Finite-
Volume Method), and the Navier-Stokes equation is used as
the governing equation. Iterative calculations are performed
for the velocity and pressure fields using an AMG (Algebraic
Multi-Grid) linear solver. For the time marching method, a
first-order implicit method is used. For the convective term, a
second-order upwind scheme is adopted for the case of
RANS (Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes Simulation)
models. For the case of LES models, a BCD (Bounded
Central Differencing) scheme is employed.
Fig.1 Polyhedral mesh and prism layer mesh
4. Summary of RIAM-COMPACT® Software
In this section, a summary of the RIAM-COMPACT®
natural terrain version software is provided. The RIAM-
COMPACT® natural terrain version software uses collocated
grids in a general curvilinear coordinate system in order to
numerically predict local airflows over complex terrain with
high accuracy while avoiding numerical instability. In these
collocated grids, the velocity components and pressure are
defined at the mesh cell centers, and variables which result
from the contravariant velocity components multiplied by the
Jacobian are defined at the cell faces. As for the simulation
technique, the FDM (Finite-Difference Method) is adopted,
and an LES model is used for the turbulence model. In LES, a
spatial filter is applied to the flow field to separate eddies of
various scales into GS (Grid Scale) components, which are
larger than the computational grid cells, and SGS (Sub-Grid
Scale) components, which are smaller than the computational
grid cells. Large-scale eddies, i.e., the GS components of
turbulence eddies, are directly numerically simulated without
relying on the use of a physically simplified model. On the
other hand, the main effect of small-scale eddies, i.e., the SGS
components, is to dissipate energy, and this dissipation is
modeled on the physical considerations of the SGS stress.
For the governing equations of the flow, a spatially-filtered
continuity equation for incompressible fluid (Eq.(1)) and a
spatially filtered Navier-Stokes equation (Eq.(2)) are used:
i
i
u0
x
-(1)
2iji i i
jj i j j j
u u p 1 uu
t x x Re x x x
-(2)
Supporting equations are given in Eqs.(3) - (8):
' ' ' 'ijij k k ij SGSi j
1u u u u 2 S
3 -(3)
2SGS s sC f S -(4)
1/2
ij ijS 2S S -(5)
jiij
j i
uu1S
2 x x
-(6)
sf 1 exp z / 25 -(7)
1/3
x y zh h h -(8)
Because mean wind speeds of 6.0 m/s or higher are
considered in the RIAM-COMPACT® software , the effect
of vertical thermal stratification (density stratification), which
is generally present in the atmosphere, is neglected.
Furthermore, the effect of surface roughness is included by
reconstructing the irregularities of the terrain surface in high
resolution.
The computational algorithm and the time marching
method are based on a FS (Fractional Step) method and the
Euler explicit method, respectively. The Poisson’s equation
for pressure is solved by the SOR (Successive Over-
Relaxation) method. For discretization of all the spatial terms
in Eq.(2) except for the convective term, a second-order
central difference scheme is applied. For the convective term,
a third-order upwind difference scheme is applied. An
interpolation technique based on four-point differencing and
four-point interpolation by Kajishima is used for the
fourth-order central differencing that appears in the
discretized form of the convective term. For the weighting of
the numerical diffusion term in the convective term
discretized by third-order upwind differencing, α = 3.0 is
commonly applied in the Kawamura-Kuwahara Scheme.
However, α = 0.5 is used in the present study to minimize the
influence of numerical diffusion. For LES sub-grid scale
modeling, the commonly used Smagorinsky model is adopted.
Region filled with fluid
Object surface
Object
Prism layer
50 Uchida : Reproducibility of Complex Turbulent Flow Using Commercially-Available CFD Software, Report 1
A wall-damping function is used with a model coefficient of
0.1.
5. Flow Field and Simulation Set-up
In this section, the flow field investigated and the
coordinate system and simulation set-up adopted in the
present study are described. The dimensions of the
computational domain are 13h (x) × 9h (y) × 10h (z), where x,
y, and z are the streamwise, spanwise, and vertical directions,
respectively, and h is the height of the isolated-hill (see Fig.2).
The geometry of the isolated-hill is represented by the
following function:
z (r) = 0.5h × {1 + cos (πr / a)},r = (x2 + y2)1/2,a = 2h -(9)
where a is the radius of the isolated-hill at its base.
Regarding the boundary conditions, uniform inflow
conditions are applied at the inflow boundary, slip conditions
are applied at the side and upper boundaries, and convective
outflow conditions are applied at the outflow boundary. At the
ground surface, non-slip boundary conditions are imposed. The
Reynolds number is set to Re (= Uh / ν) = 104, where h is the
isolated-hill height and U is the wind speed at height h at the
inflow boundary. The time steps are set to Δt = 2 × 10-3 (h / U)
and Δt = 1 × 10-2 (h / U) in the simulations with RIAM-
COMPACT® and STAR-CCM+, respectively.
Fig.2 Computational domain, coordinate system,
and boundary conditions
Fig.3 Structured computational mesh used in the vicinity of the
isolated-hill in the RIAM-COMPACT® simulation.
The cross-section shown is for the central plane (y = 0).
(a) Side view (y = 0)
(b) Top view (z = 0.5h)
Fig.4 Side and top cross-sectional views of the computational mesh (unstructured mesh) distributed over the entire
computational domain for the STAR-CCM+ simulations.
Fig.3 shows the computational mesh (structured mesh)
which is used in RIAM-COMPACT® in the vicinity of the
isolated-hill for the present simulation. The numbers of
mesh points in the x-, y-, and z-directions are 326×226×67
points, respectively (approximately five million points in
total). The mesh points in the x- and y-directions are spaced
at an even interval of 0.04h while the mesh points in the
10h
9h
10h 3h
Flow
U
Ground surface: non-slip conditions
Three-dimensional isolated-hill model (height h)
Outflow boundary:convective outflow conditions
Upper boundary & Side boundaries: slip condition
Inflow boundary: uniform inflow conditions
h
a=2h α 40
Reports of Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University No.150 March 2016 51
z-direction are spaced unevenly (from 0.003h to 0.6h).
Fig.4 shows the computational mesh (unstructured mesh)
used in the present STAR-CCM+ simulations. The total
number of mesh points is approximately one million (i.e.,
approximately 1/5 of that used in the RIAM-COMPACT®
simulation). In the STAR-CCM+ simulations, the mesh
resolution in the vicinity of the isolated-hill is set to be
nearly identical to that in the RIAM-COMPACT®
simulation.
Tables 1 and 2 summarize all of the turbulence models
(RANS, LES) adopted in the present comparative study. For
convenience, simulations performed with the use of each of
the models are referred to as Cases 1 to 5. In Case 4, i.e., the
WALE model, the eddy viscosity coefficient becomes zero
near the wall without the use of a wall damping function.
Furthermore, this model has been designed in such a way
that the eddy viscosity coefficient is not calculated for
laminar shear layers.
Case 1
Spalart-Allmaras single equation
eddy-viscosity turbulence model,
steady RANS RANS
models
Case 2
SST k-ω two-equation eddy
-viscosity model, unsteady RANS
(URANS)
Case 3 Smagorinsky model, LES LES
models Case 4 WALE model, LES
Table 1 Turbulence models used in the present
STAR-CCM+ simulations
LES model Case 5 Smagorinsky model, LES
Table 2 Turbulence model used in the present
RIAM-COMPACT® simulation
6. Simulation Results and Discussions
First, the flow patterns which form in the vicinity of the
isolated-hill are examined (see Fig.5). The qualitative
behaviors of the flows numerically simulated by RIAM-
COMPACT® and observed in a wind tunnel experiment
resemble each other quite closely. More specifically, a shear
layer separates in the vicinity of the top of the isolated-hill
and rolls up into isolated-eddies, forming large eddies.
Subsequently, these eddies are periodically shed downstream
of the isolated-hill. Refer to Uchida et al.1) for a detailed
comparison between the simulation results from RIAM-
COMPACT® and those from the wind tunnel experiment.
(a) Wind tunnel experiment, smoke-wire technique
(b) Numerical simulation (RIAM-COMPACT®),
passive particle tracking method
Fig.5 Visualization of the flow field
in the vicinity of an isolated-hill; instantaneous field
Figs.6 to 12 illustrate comparisons of simulation results. In
these figures, the time-averaged flow fields and turbulence
statistics were evaluated from the fully-developed flow field,
specifically from the time interval of t = 100 – 200 (h / U).
Examinations of these figures (Figs.6 to 10) reveal that the
trends of the simulation results from STAR-CCM+ with the
use of the RANS models (steady and unsteady) are similar to
each other. In addition, the three sets of simulation results
from STAR-CCM+ and RIAM-COMPACT® with the use of
the LES models (i.e., STAR-CCM+ with the standard
Smagorinsky model and the WALE model and RIAM-
COMPACT® with the standard Smagorinsky model)
resemble one another very closely with no distinction
between the use of STAR-CCM+ and the use of RIAM-
COMPACT®. It should be noted that a clear vortex center is
simulated downstream of the isolated-hill in the simulations
with the LES models, however, not in the simulations with
the RANS models.
Subsequently, the vertical profiles of turbulence statistics
(the mean and standard deviation of the streamwise (x)
velocity component), shown in Figs.11 and 12, are examined.
The turbulence statistics were evaluated at a total of four
points, specifically, at x / h = -2, 0, +2, and +6 as shown in
Fig.10. In the mean velocity profiles, no significant
differences are found at any of the points given by x / h = -2,
0, and +2 (Fig.11). At the top of the isolated-hill, which is
located at x / h = 0, locally occurring increased wind velocity
is evident. Immediately downstream of the isolated-hill, that
is at x / h = +2, a region of reversed flow is present. At x/ h
= +6, the trends of the wind velocity profiles differ between
Flow
52 Uchida : Reproducibility of Complex Turbulent Flow Using Commercially-Available CFD Software, Report 1
(a) Spalart-Allmaras single equation eddy-viscosity turbulence model, steady RANS
(b) SST k-ω two-equation eddy-viscosity model, unsteady RANS (URANS), time-averaged field
Fig.6 Distribution of the streamwise (x) velocity component; simulation results from STAR-CCM+ with the use of RANS
turbulence models. The cross-sections shown are for the central plane (y = 0) aligned with the streamwise direction (x).
Flow
Reports of Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University No.150 March 2016 53
(a) Standard Smagorinsky model, LES
(b) WALE model, LES
Fig.7 Distribution of the time-averaged streamwise (x) velocity component; simulation results from STAR-CCM+ with the use of
LES turbulence models. The cross-sections shown are for the central plane (y = 0) aligned with the streamwise direction (x).
Flow
54 Uchida : Reproducibility of Complex Turbulent Flow Using Commercially-Available CFD Software, Report 1
(a) Spalart-Allmaras single equation eddy-viscosity turbulence model, steady RANS
(b) SST k-ω two-equation eddy-viscosity model, unsteady RANS (URANS), time-averaged field
Fig.8 Distribution of velocity vectors; simulation results from STAR-CCM+ with the use of RANS turbulence models.
The cross-sections shown are for the central plane (y = 0) aligned with the streamwise direction (x).
Flow
The vortex region is not simulated clearly.
The vortex region is not simulated clearly.
Reports of Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University No.150 March 2016 55
(a) Standard Smagorinsky model, LES
(b) WALE model, LES
Fig.9 Distribution of time-averaged velocity vectors; simulation results from STAR-CCM+ with the use of LES turbulence
models. The cross-sections shown are for the central plane (y = 0) aligned with the streamwise direction (x).
Flow
Vortex center
Vortex center
56 Uchida : Reproducibility of Complex Turbulent Flow Using Commercially-Available CFD Software, Report 1
(a) Distribution of the streamwise (x) velocity component
(b) Distribution of velocity vectors
Fig.10 Time-averaged results from RIAM-COMPACT® with the use of the standard Smagorinsky LES model.
The cross-sections shown are for the central plane (y = 0) aligned with the streamwise direction (x).
Flow
-2h 0h +2h +6h
-2h 0h +2h +6h
height h
Vortex center
height h
Reports of Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University No.150 March 2016 57
Fig.11 Comparisons of profiles of the mean streamwise (x) velocity component
x=-2h x=0h
x=+2h x=+6h
RIAM-COMPACT®
STAR-CCM+
Locally occurring increased velocity
No significant differences among the values
RANS results ↓ The trend is different from LES results.
No significant differences among the values
58 Uchida : Reproducibility of Complex Turbulent Flow Using Commercially-Available CFD Software, Report 1
Fig.12 Comparisons of profiles of the standard deviation of the streamwise (x) wind velocity component
x=-2h x=0h
x=+2h x=+6h
STAR-CCM+
RIAM-COMPACT®
Only values close to zero were output in simulations with RANS models.
Similar trends are found among values output by LES models.
Only values close to zero were output in simulations with RANS models.
Similar trends are found among values output by LES models.
Only values close to zero were output in simulations with RANS models.
Similar trends are found among values output by LES models.
Reports of Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University No.150 March 2016 59
the simulation results from RANS models and those from
LES models.
From the point of view of predicting the airflow field over
complex terrain, these errors in the simulation results from
the RANS models would significantly affect assessments of
the power to be generated and other variables.
In the vertical profiles of the standard deviation of the
streamwise (x) wind velocity component predicted by the
RANS models, no significant differences are found at any of
the four examined points (Fig.12). Similarly, it can be said
that the trends of the profiles from simulations which used
the LES models, i.e., simulations by STAR-CCM+ with both
the standard Smagorinsky model and the WALE model and
the simulation by RIAM-COMPACT®, are nearly identical.
In the simulations performed in the present study, the
number of mesh points used in RIAM-COMPACT®
(structured mesh, approx. five million mesh points) is
approximately five times that used in STAR-CCM+
(unstructured mesh, approx. one million mesh points).
Nonetheless, it has been confirmed that the simulation by
RIAM-COMPACT® completes approximately ten times
faster than those by STAR-CCM+.
7. Conclusions
In the present paper, the airflow field in the vicinity of an
isolated-hill with steep slopes was simulated by one of the
leading, commercially-available CFD packages, STAR-
CCM+ as well as by RIAM-COMPACT® (turbulence model:
LES based on the standard Smagorinsky model). The
simulation results were compared to examine the prediction
accuracy of RIAM-COMPACT®. In STAR-CCM+, two
types of RANS turbulence models were selected: the
Spalart-Allmaras single equation eddy-viscosity turbulence
model (steady RANS) and the SST k-ω two-equation
eddy-viscosity model (unsteady RANS). In addition, for LES
turbulence models (SGS models), the standard Smagorinsky
model and the WALE model were selected.
From the comparisons of the simulation results, the
following have been found. Images visualizing the flow fields
time-averaged over the interval of t = 100 – 200 (h / U)
suggested that the trends of the simulation results from
STAR-CCM+ with the RANS turbulence models (steady and
unsteady) were quite similar to each other. In addition, the
trends of the flow patterns simulated by RIAM-COMPACT®
with the LES turbulence model (the standard Smagorinsky
model) and STAR-CCM+ with the LES turbulence models
(the standard Smagorinsky model and the WALE model)
were nearly the same. In addition, the center of the vortex
(region of reversed flow) downstream of the isolated-hill
which was evident in the LES simulations, was not
adequately simulated by STAR-CCM+ using the RANS
turbulence models.
In the present study, the vertical profiles of turbulence
statistics (the mean and standard deviation of the streamwise
(x) wind velocity component) were evaluated and compared
at four points, x / h = -2, 0, +2, and +6. The comparisons
revealed the following. No significant difference was found
among the mean velocity profiles obtained from all the
turbulence models at x / h = -2, 0, and +2. At the top of the
isolated-hill, which was located at x/h = 0, locally occurring
increased velocity was identified. At x / h = +2, which was
immediately downstream of the isolated-hill, an area of
negative velocity was found, indicating the presence of a
region of reversed flow. At x / h = +6, the trends of the
results differed between the simulations which used the
RANS models and those which used the LES models.
From the perspective of predicting the airflow field over
complex terrain, the prediction errors in the mean wind
velocity in the RANS model simulations would greatly affect
the assessments of the power to be generated and other
variables.
In the simulations which used the RANS turbulence
models, the values of the standard deviation were not
significantly different from zero throughout the profiles at all
the examined points. In the simulations which used the LES
models, i.e., STAR-CCM+ with the standard Smagorinsky
model and the WALE model and RIAM-COMPACT® with
the standard Smagorinsky model, the trends of the profiles of
the mean and standard deviation of the wind velocity
resembled one another quite closely as was the case for the
trends of the visualized flow field.
References 1) Takanori UCHIDA and Yuji OHYA, Micro-siting
technique for wind turbine generators by using
large-eddy simulation, Journal of Wind Engineering &
Industrial Aerodynamics, Vol.96, pp.2121-2138, 2008
2) Takanori UCHIDA, Validation Testing of the
Prediction Accuracy of the Numerical Wind Synopsis
Prediction Technique RIAM-COMPACT for the Case
of the Bolund Experiment –Comparison against a
Wind-Tunnel Experiment–, Reports of RIAM, Kyushu
University, No.147, pp.7-14, 2014